A FATAL FALL

My 2nd great grandfather Pawel "Paul" Szukalski died at the age of 63 after suffering a fall over an embankment on 11 Mar 1900.   Paul and his wife Constance (Budzbanowski) were on their way home from church at St. Casimer's and were on a bridge that goes over Pine Creek. They were in a cutter (which is I guess some sort of sleigh) that was pulled by horses.  There was no snow on the ground which understandably made it harder for the horses to pull the cutter with the Szukalski s   The bridge had no rails and for some reason the horses went over the embankment into the 20 feet ravine.

Paul Szukalski broke his neck as a result of the fall. Constance was unhurt in the accident, as were the horses.  Paul was taken to a neighboring farm house and a doctor was summoned.  According to the Manitowoc Daily Herald (March 12, 1900 edition), "A doctor ... did all in his power to alleviate the sufferings of the patient; but the spark of life soon left the body and the uncertainty of human existence had again been sadly and forcibly illustrated".

The newspaper also said that Paul Szukalski was "one of the most prosperous farmers of the community and enjoyed a wide acquaintance in the county.  He had many friends in the city to whom the news of his death will come as a shock."  I am sure that it was heartbreaking for his wife Constance and their 7 children.

PAWEL AND CONSTANTIA SZUKALSKI

My second great grandfather Pawel "Paul" Szukalski was born 2 Feb 1837 in Swiekatowo  Kuyawsko-Pomorskie, Poland  (a village in north central Poland).  His parents were Michael Szukalski and Elizabeth Kielpikowska.  According to the Poznan Project documents, his father Michael was 70 at the time of his birth while his mother Elizabeth was 35.  I definitely need to send for their marriage certificate to check this out!

Pawel married Constantia Budzbanowski on 16 Mar 1862 in the same town as Pawel's birth.  Pawel and Constantia had 3 children -- John, Theophilus and Thomas (in 1863, 1864 and 1868) and then immigrated to the US in 1869.  They brought Constantia's widowed father John Budzbanowski with them to the US.  They settled in Newton, Manitowoc, Wisconsin.  In the 1870 census, Pawel's occupation was listed as "laborer" and then in the 1880 census, it was listed as "farmer".

Constantia had 4 more children in the US -- Damazy, my great grandmother Anna and her twin sister Katherine and the baby of the family Marian.

ST.CASIMIR'S CATHOLIC CHURCH

     
     My 2nd great grandparents Pawel "Paul" Szukalski and Constance Budzbanowski Szukalski were parishioners of St. Casimir's Catholic Church in Newton, Wisconsin.  I like to research the churches of my ancestors.  I find that not only does it give me a place to potentially find records but also helps me to "picture" their lives -- to see how their lives entwined with the history of that local church. I was very happy to find a lot of information on the history of St. Casimir's Church on the 2manitowoc.com website.  The exact address for the information is www.2manitowoc.com/casimir.html. The 28 page history tells not only of the history of the buildings but also the various pastors of that church.

       According to its history, St. Casimir's is the 4th oldest Catholic church in the state of Wisconsin.  The congregation was formed in 1868.  My 2nd great grandfather Paul Szukalski was listed as a charter member of the parish.  Okay. how exciting is that?  On 21 July 1880, the church was destroyed by fire.  That must have been devastating to the congregation.  Masses were then held in the parish school house. However, the congregation was determined to build a new church.  According to the history, the majority of the families of the parish donated either $50 or $100 (which was a lot of money in those days) to build a new church.  The new church was completed in July of 1881.

        I thought this was very interesting.  "In about the year 1895, there were forty-eight families on the Church Records, thirty-eight of whom were Polish and the rest German.  This incident also explains why priests, attending this parish, had to know these two languages sufficiently in order to accommodate all the people."  Supposedly the parish (between the years of 1875 and 1890) actually consisted of double the amount of families as those in 1895, but more of the settlers sold their farms and moved to larger cities.

       The parish also converted an old priest' house into a parish school house which educated children from 1876 to 1900.  I wonder if my great grandmother Anna Szukalski and her siblings attended school there?  There were 8 grades and both boys and girls were educated at the school.

        The history of the parish lists all the pastors from the inaugural pastor to when the history was written in 1943.  After the listing of the pastors, it named one prominent priest who was raised in that parish. Yes, it was my great grand uncle Reverend John Szukalski.  I will talk about him in my next post.